“I was thrown 45 feet through the air, bounced off a car, was impaled on a guardrail and bounced
off the ground,” he said yesterday, choking back tears in a Franklin County Common Pleas
courtroom.

“I watched the white of my uniform shirt turn red with my own blood,” he said.

The 43-year-old officer recalled somehow remaining conscious and listening as paramedics worried
that he wouldn’t survive the four-minute wait for a medical helicopter.

He spent two weeks in a hospital and two months in a rehabilitation center, endured 18 surgeries
— another one is scheduled — and missed 15 months of work. He remains on restricted duty and
worries that he might lose “the career I love,” he said.

All because, in Livingston’s words, Alphonso Jennings III decided “to operate a motor vehicle
while higher than a kite on drugs.”

Jennings, 43, apologized in court before he was sentenced to three years in prison and six
months in jail for the July 15, 2012, crash.

“It wasn’t intentional,” he said. “It was not a malicious act. It was just an accident.”

But Jennings wasn’t charged with intentionally striking the officer or Morgan Salisbury, who
also was seriously injured, Assistant Prosecutor William Walton said. He was charged with causing
the injuries by driving recklessly while impaired.

Jennings, of Ellsworth Avenue on the South Side, was driving a Chevy Tahoe from northbound I-71
onto the ramp to westbound I-270 on the North Side when he struck Livingston and Salisbury, who
were standing beside the ramp at the scene of a one-car crash.

Salisbury, 25, also spoke in court, saying that her injuries, which included a broken hip, left
her with mental and physical scars that won’t go away.

Livingston said he thinks Jennings panicked at the sight of a police officer along the ramp
because he was driving an SUV “that smelled like a weed factory.” A blood test showed that he was
under the influence of marijuana.

Jennings
pleaded guilty in February to two counts of aggravated vehicular assault and one
count of operating a motor vehicle while impaired.

Judge Colleen O’Donnell imposed the maximum sentence for the offenses, which was recommended by
the prosecution and defense as part of a plea agreement. She also suspended his driver’s license
for three years.

Jennings’ attorney, Byron Potts, said he expects to file a request for judicial release after
his client serves 18 months.

“I ask for you to ignore that request,” Livingston told the judge.

Assistant Prosecutor Keith McGrath said the prosecutor’s office will oppose any request to allow
Jennings to be released before serving his full sentence.